


A Prelude to the "Training Wheels" Protocol

by pheonix85



Series: fall together [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Training, i wanted them to meet so here they are, nat and peter are kinda gonna be friends, this is meant to be fun nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 14:30:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pheonix85/pseuds/pheonix85
Summary: The present and future spiders of the MCU meet, and somehow, Tony is the one on the ground.





	A Prelude to the "Training Wheels" Protocol

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this last night in like an hour, preparing to post the *other* additional part of this series, which will go up right after this. someone had commented on the second part in the series about meeting natasha and i felt bad not writing her in and then this came to me. 
> 
> this is within the fall together universe, so you should probably read at least the first part to get where everyone is at. it's unbeta'd as per usual, so please let me know if you see anything glaring.

Natasha wasn’t accustomed to being snuck up on. Natasha had been trained in the Red Room as a girl, knew how to sling knives and take out more than one man at a time. Natasha was able to figure out someone’s move 3 paces before they even knew what they were going to do.

 

So what the hell was this kid doing, sneaking up behind her?

 

He was...kinda short. Maybe around 12, or 13, on the skinny side, a backpack thrown over his right shoulder; he had brown curls that framed the same color eyes. They bugged out when she turned and fixed him with an examining look, and she saw him swallow and step back.

 

“Oh my god, you’re the Black Widow…”

  
She frowned. “And who are _you_?”   
  


“Child! He’s a child, he’s mine,” Stark’s voice cut from where she couldn’t see him and her gaze darted around the room. Tony finally emerged from around the corner, looking a little sheepish, waving a hand. “I mean, he’s not _mine_ , mine, but he’s like... I’m watching him. I’m his babysitter.”

 

The kid frowned and snorted. “Mr. Stark, I’m 13, you’re _not_ my babysitter.”

 

“Fine, whatever.” Tony rolled his eyes, closing in on them. “Peter, this is Natasha Romanov. Nat, this is Peter. He’s the kid I’m sure Steve and Clint have mentioned. He’s my…buddy...” He trailed off with a shrug.

 

Ah. She’d definitely seen stuff about this when Nick had her first look into him---a community service type thing that had turned into this weird mentor/father-son situation. It seemed good for him, one of the few positives she’d been able to write up in his assessment. 

 

Nat relaxed, remembering the fondness that tinted Clint’s tone when he mentioned the boy, and how both he and Steve had been handed their asses in some video game by him. She held out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Peter.”

 

The boy appeared completely starstruck. In some kind of daze, he held out his hand and took hers; his grip was loose and a little damp and she bit back a smile. He was absolutely terrified of her, it seemed, but not in any kind of way that seemed he thought of her as a legitimate threat. 

 

“I was gonna get something to eat, you guys want any pizza? I was gonna heat up some from last night.”

 

“Pizza would be great,” Tony replied with a nod. When Peter stayed silent, Tony nudged him with an elbow. “Right, kid?”

 

Peter squeaked. “Um, yeah, yeah I, um….” He cleared his throat, looking away. “Pizza would be awesome.”

 

“Pete, why don’t you go throw your stuff in your room? Food should be reheated in a few.”

 

The boy seemed to snap back to reality, shaking his head. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, sorry, Mr. Stark, I’ll…” He smiled bashfully. “I’ll be right back. Sorry.”

 

“Stop apologizing so much!” Tony shouted after him as the boy ran away. He shook his head, looking back at Natasha with a small smile. “Kids.”

 

Natasha looked up with a grin as she pulled the box from the fridge, leaning over to preheat the oven. “Seems nice enough from the few seconds I talked to him. Clint had nothing but great things to say about him.”

 

“Well, yeah. Peter put an end to Steve’s gaming reign of terror so Clint took a shine to him,” Tony grinned at her and it was sweet; it was a proud, smug look parents had on their faces when their kid got straight A’s on their report card or a successful science project and it was a little strange, seeing it on their resident narcissist. 

  
But really nice, all the same. 

 

“So,” Natasha asked, prepping the food for the oven. “What’s the occasion?”

 

Tony raised his brows quickly, looking a little sheepish. “Ah. Yeah, I should have given you a heads up, I’m sorry about that.”

 

“You own the building, Tony.”

 

“Yeah but still.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking back towards where Peter had run off to, making sure the kid wouldn’t be listening. “We were kinda tied up with stuff a month or so ago, and everything’s been a little crazy, you know, what with you and Roger’s deciding to...I don’t know, destroy the US government.”

 

She shot him a withering glare.

 

“I’m just saying. We’re busy now.” Tony shrugged. “I kinda missed his birthday. And I felt shitty about it, so I promised him a long weekend, and now…” He splayed his arms. “Here we are.”

 

She slid the pizza in the oven when the timer beeped, thankful for how quickly Tony’s appliances worked. “Well, after we’re done here, if you want I can help…”

 

“I think we’ll be---”

 

“Seriously?!” Peter’s voice squeaked from behind them at the mouth of the open room in front of them. Tony and Natasha turned to see him, eyes wide and bright and excited. “We get to hang out with Black Widow?”

 

“It’s Natasha, Peter,” Tony reminded him. But he frowned. Because he knew what Natasha meant by help, and it was evident from the smirk on her face that it was exactly what he thought it was. “And I was thinking we could just go down and hang out in the lab….”

 

Peter made a face. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy hanging out in the lab with Mr. Stark. But this was the Black Widow. She was _a complete badass_ , and he hadn’t gotten to meet her when she was here for the Expo but he knew, now, that she a member of the Avengers, and one of the only ones, outside of Thor and Dr. Banner, who he’d not met yet.

 

“Please, Mr. Stark?” Peter plead. “I want to hang out with Ms. Natasha.”

 

Tony glowered at him. “She’s gonna make you work out. She’s gonna drag you down to the gym, and run around and punch stuff, it’s kinda gonna….”

 

But Peter had already lit up. “I’ll go change, I brought sweatpants!” He shot back from where he came, a skip in his step. “Thanks, Mr. Stark!”

 

* * *

 

“Now, remember Romanov, this is like one of those thrift store deals; break it, you buy it.”

 

Natasha shot Tony a withering look. “This gym has seen way, way worse than what I’m gonna show him tonight.”

 

“Wasn’t talking about the gym,” Tony shot back. “Believe me, you don’t want to be on May’s bad side, just a fair warning.”

 

“He’ll be fine,” Nat assured with a sigh. The mother hen routine was a little amusing, but what made it even better was Tony seemed completely unaware of it. He’d spent the first 5 minutes down in the gym eyeing all the equipment and setting some ground rules. 

 

There was a target, for throwing knives and stars and other weapons that Tony had expressly told Natasha was off limits for the young teen while he was getting changed. 

 

Understandable.

 

He’d wavered on the nunchucks and some of the other weapons in their arsenal. “How about you just teach him the basics?” He relented. “I don’t think the kid even knows how to throw a punch. Just….set him up with the heavy bag for like an hour, let him tire himself out.”

 

She frowned. “Maybe it’ll help him to learn something. Martial arts helps to develop discipline and self-defense and-----”

 

And Tony rolled his eyes and stopped listening. “Peter doesn’t need any of that, he’s a good kid. Seriously, basics.”

 

“I’m ready!” Peter burst out of the bathroom. He had a padded helmet on his hands and pads on his hands and feet. She motioned for him to join her on the mat they'd laid in the middle of the room and grabbed a kicking target to hold for later. She tossed it on the mat and walked over to Peter, telling him they were gonna start with learning how to make a proper fist.

 

Tony relaxed off to the side, a small smile on his face. He supposed he could be helping; after all, yeah, Natasha had been trained in this since she was a kid, but he could throw a pretty decent punch as well.

 

He watched as she grabbed the pad and held it up so Peter could give it a try. He threw a few and she stopped, corrected his technique and had him continue from there. She had him do the same thing with a few standard kicks, working him around the mat in a frenzy that left the kid huffing and puffing.

 

Tony had watched for most of it but his attention had waned and he was looking at the news on his phone when her voice pulled him away from it.

 

“Okay, now, Tony, you wanna help with this one?”

 

She was sporting the half grin on her face that made him nervous; the one she got when she was about to have fun at one of their expenses. “What one?”

 

“Just a simple judo move. Basic. Thought it might be fun for him.”

 

“Yeah, come on Mr. Stark! Don't be scared.”

 

“I'm not scared,” He eyed her warily. “Why can’t you show him?”

 

“Well, cause I gotta walk him through it.” She frowned. “You telling me Iron Man’s afraid of a little tumbling exercise?”

 

He scowled at her. “No.” He spat, sliding his shoes off and walking onto the mat. He gave Peter a sour look. “We were supposed to be playing with robots.”

 

“I’m gonna be here _all weekend_ , we can play with robots tomorrow.”

 

Tony shot Natasha a side glance and huffed, but crossed his arms and stood up all the same. “Alright, okay, what am I doing?”

 

“I mean, it’s just basic self-defense. Now, Peter, come here,” She motioned for the boy to walk closer and when he did, she gestured for Tony to squat just a little. “You’re gonna grab onto his shirt, like this,” She took a fistful of his v-neck, grabbing at the collar with one hand, and one of his sleeves with the other. “And you’re gonna put your foot up, pressing into his chest, like this,” 

 

She demonstrated all of it. Peter watched her closely, eyes wide and focused; she never actually threw Tony. Instead, she showed Peter how to roll back from where he stood and work the tossing motion, then had him do it a few times, before telling him to grab onto Tony. 

 

“Okay, so,” Natasha was looking up at Tony now, even though she was talking to Peter. “Mr. Stark has done this a bunch of times with Happy and some of the Avengers, so he knows what he’s doing alright?”

 

Tony sent her a pointed look. Because all of that was true. But none of the Avengers were a kid whose weight was around 100 pounds, on a good day, and he really didn’t want Peter to end up with any broken bones. Natasha didn’t seem as concerned.

 

“Alright now.” She nodded down at Peter. “Stand here. Okay. Grab him by the collar and his arm, like I showed you.”

 

Peter followed along, and Tony bent down just a bit to allow him the space to grab on tight. Peter’s gaze was fixed on Natasha though, his brow crinkled as he listened intently, determined to get it right.

 

“Okay, now.” She had Peter lift his foot, placing it in the center of Tony’s stomach, just under where the arc reactor used to rest, and Tony smiled at Peter to let him know it was alright.

 

In all seriousness, this probably wasn't a bad idea. Peter was 13 now, and Queens wasn’t dangerous, but it couldn’t hurt for him to know some basic self-defense stuff. But it still didn’t mean the kid, while obviously loving this, wasn’t nervous out of his mind.

 

“You’re okay, kid,” Tony assured. “Like she said, I’ve done it a million times. I won’t let you get hurt. And you're not gonna hurt me.”

 

He saw the kid swallow hard then nod, staring up at him with wide eyes. Peter tightened his grip where his fist grasped Tony’s shirt and pressed more firmly with his foot.

 

“Okay and just like I showed you---drop back and let the momentum take you.”

 

And Tony helped. He went down as Peter dropped back, just as Natasha had directed and rolled over the top of the kid, landing on his back with a slap of his hands and a soft grown. Peter sprang to his feet, eyes bright and excited.

 

“Holy crap, I did it!”

 

“ _Mouth_.”

 

Peter grinned. “Sorry. But that was so cool, can we do it again?”   
  


“I don’t know, Tony, can we?” Natasha asked him, staring down at his prone position on the floor. Tony sighed heavily, wincing as he pushed himself up into a kneeling position as his joints popped.

 

“I suppose,” He replied dryly. “But only a couple more times, these bones are late middle-aged at best.”

 

On the third try, Tony hit the mat, back flat with a groan of pain, apparently knocking the wind out of himself. Peter’s eyes shot open in alarm, and Natasha stifled a smirk, before turning back to him.

 

“He’s fine, he’s Iron Man! Good job, Peter! We’ll end on that high note.” Natasha grinned widely at the kid. 

 

“Are you okay, Mr. Stark?” Peter bent down low, expression creased in worry. Tony’s blinked a few times, letting the room come back in focus, wincing in the light.

 

“Yeah kid, I’m fine.” He wheezed, trying to work the air back into his lungs. “You did well, you did really, really well.” 

 

Peter didn’t seem too certain, but he straightened up and seemed to relax just a little. 

 

“Peter,” Natasha chimed in. “How about you put the pads away and go grab the cleaning spray bottle and a rag so we can wipe everything down? I think Mr. Stark needs a minute.”

 

From his spot on the floor, Tony made a scornful noise, and Peter ran off to do as he was told. Natasha turned her attention to the man on the ground, legs, and arms splayed against the mat. 

 

“You were supposed to roll into it.”

 

He glared up at her and sighed miserably. “I hate you.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> My lone disclaimer here is that i did martial arts a million years ago and had very very very scant judo/hapkido training and this is like, one of the throws i remember. It is by no means meant to be perfectly accurate.
> 
> also, with all the endgame stuff, i've been engaging a little more where i lurk in the irondad fandom on tumblr, so if you see a [cattlaydee](http://cattlaydee.tumblr.com) like or i send you a message, that'd be me. i don't really engage too much about fic on my blog and it's been forever since i have but i'm always down for some screaming about faves and i think i may need it these next couple weeks lol


End file.
